Kia ora WMSA members,
Last weekend I had the privilege to attend the NZMSA education summit at the University of Otago Christchurch, along with fellow council members Ellie Baxter, Kate Hippolite, Philip Allan, Tom Knight and Shiva Kalyanasundaram. Despite being stuck overnight while waiting for a flight, we all gained a lot out of the weekend and are excited to share our progress and ideas with you. This year we focussed on Social Accountability, a value reflected in WMSA’s new mission statement. We also discussed such topics as:
- The next steps to be taken following the Gender in Medicine Survey
- Integration of global health and broader cultural competencies into the curriculum
- Strategies to promote careers in General Practice and rural medicine
- – The transition from ELM to ALM
- Integration of Te Reo into non Hauora Maori teaching
- Early introduction of peer focused mental health teaching.
We also heard from Profs Tim Wilkinson and David Murdoch from UoO and Ass. Prof. Andy Wearn and Prof. Warwick Bagg from Auckland.
I know that I left the weekend feeling inspired by the efforts of all our peers to improve medicine and medical education, and hope that we can all turn that into real action for the future. If you have any questions about what we discussed, please feel free to chat to one of us.
-Rosie Melchers, 4th year education rep
